Melissa Harris-Perry on Life, Death and Penalties

On Sunday, MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry tackled the difficult ethical and policy issues associated with the death penalty. The U.S. ranks fifth in the world in executions behind Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Iran and China, which is No. 1.

Harris-Perry talked with a mother whose son is on death row and Barry Scheck of the Innocence Project about the human and financial costs of the death penalty in the U.S., where 1,294 people have been executed since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.